Guardians Exec Gets Honest About Cleveland's Roster Construction

The Cleveland Guardians have never been big spenders in free agency, and it doesn’t look like they ever will be unless something dramatically changes in the next collective bargaining agreement. 

The front office isn’t hiding from this reality, and never has. That said, they also aren’t making it an excuse for not routinely fielding a competitive team that has the chance to win the American League Central and go on and make some noise in the playoffs. 

Guardians GM Mike Chernoff recently appeared on Foul Territory and discussed how Cleveland must approach roster construction given the organization's limitations compared to others. 

“We have to do things differently. We're a small market, and in today's economic environment, in baseball, we can't go out and sign top-tier free agents. It's just impossible with the economic landscape,” explained Chernoff.

“You can stack up payrolls as much as you want, but we don't make excuses about payrolls. Over the past 10 years, we've been to the postseason seven times, so that we don't, we are stacking ourselves up on wins, not on, payroll.”

Whether it was this past winter or previous offseasons, Chernoff also made it clear that the Guardians don’t try to convince a free agent on something that they aren’t, but focus on what the team has accomplished. 

“We don't sell ourselves to something else,” continued the executive. “We have a lot of players who love being here because of the culture we create… we try to create that winning environment where guys know it's our internal guys who drive us.”

Cleveland’s methodical roster-building will be put to the ultimate test this season.

After the Guardians had one of the worst offenses in baseball a year ago, the only hitter they signed to a big-league deal was Austin Hedges, who is on the roster in much more of a veteran role rather than everyday production.

Instead, the organization is relying on its young core of Chase DeLauter, George Valera, CJ Kayfus, and eventually Travis Bazzana and Juan Brito to help the Guardians’ lineup regain relevance. 

Chris Antonetti even admitted earlier in the offseason that they weren’t able to come to terms with free agents, not because of the dollar figure, but because the Guardians could guarantee them playing time 

If this plan works and the prospects perform, the front office will once again show the rest of MLB they’re playing chess, not checkers, in building a big-league team. 

If Cleveland faces more of the same struggles as in the last few years, there will be questions about where the Guardians need to adjust their roster construction strategy to keep up with other organizations. 

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